Monster Doodles

[mags1892]

MY main Issue with Monster is they would not let me bring a thermometer into their shop and test the press, something about no insurance which is pretty bad for a company selling hardware. It rings alarm bells to me if they wont allow testing of their products. What say you Monster-shop ?

[paul 44]

I have bought this press, a few hiccups to be honest along the way. The mug press I think is actually pretty good. I used sublimation paper from Isub supplies and after a few test mugs, 60 seconds is suffice in the press for a pretty decent print. The paper does state 5 minutes which I thought was a bit much (hence the tester mugs) as the blacks were turning brown which meant I over cooked it (I used 3 minutes at that point).
Dropping the time to 60 seconds press time gave me pretty good results, I put the mug in the press when it was almost at temp and the press will drop quite a lot in temperature due to the cold mug, when the press hits pressing temp, it starts automatically from 60 seconds and I'm getting pretty good results to be honest. Total press time I would say is 2 minutes from inserting the mug into the press until it heats up to sublimation temp and then another minute at full temp.

I have also tested vinyl on the actual heat press itself and it took ok to be honest, haven't wash tested as yet but will be soon though. I did buy an infra red temperature gun for the press to measure the temp over the heat plate, this was not giving accurate readings at all. I have since discovered that the teflon sheet that covers the heat plate hangs a little (centre to the edges) and is obviously not in direct contact with the center of the plate itself so a correct temperature from the middle of the plate won't be possible due to the slight hanging of the heat protective material, the edges were closer to normal temperature (give or take 10-15c) due to the sheet tightening towards the edges (tighter contact with the plate) if that makes sense?

I am printing with this at the minute and once costs are covered, will be buying a stahls press hopefully (all going well) and will be keeping this as a backup press. It can be quite tight to print on the press but you get what you pay for, it also has a 12 month warranty on the machine so any problems, they will send out a new replacement part and to be fair, customer service from monster doodles has been pretty good to be honest, can't fault them really, the only thing I will say, I have had a new controller and a new plate also, had the machine maybe 6 weeks, not a good start but I know I'm covered for parts if it goes belly up again.

To recap, not a bad machine really, mug press in my opinion is good, press is awkward when pressing xl size tshirts, haven't tried the plate or cap press as yet but if they are as good as the mug press than I would be happy with it to get some income from it to get a bigger machine which is my aim to be honest. I bought this due to budget restraints and would have bought bigger if I had the cash at the time but I didn't at the time.

I hope that helps some,

Paul